Forum:Dauntless taken by 2? no way
I just wondered how Jack and Will could have even attempted to take the Dauntless when a ship like this was always crewed heavily even when laid up. This ship was apparently on its way to sea when these 2 took control of it, so it should have had at least 900 crew on board. Also interesting is the ship was commandeered by Barbossa's crew at the island without much of a fight. Granted, dead pirates can't really be killed and all but it would have been one hell of a battle scene with the entire armed crew and would have made the movie that much better. There were enough firearms and swords, knives, pikes, clubs, etc on board ships of this type for everyone to hold their own and then some. A 100 gun ship-of-the-line has 600 crew just to operate the guns alone (6 per gun, the minimum necessary to move the 3,000 lb gun back,load it and run it out on a rolling deck) Also on board would be a handling crew of 250-500 men to handle the sails and rigging and to maintain everything. Ships like this were generally crewed the way they were because of anticipated attrition from illness, shiftworks (3x8hours) and that during battles these ships could see savage and horrific casualties(in 1805 @Trafalgar, one French ship lost 800 men out of a crew of 950 in a space of 15 minutes. The ship was surrendered to the British and scuttled the next day.) Also, the wheel on the Dauntless is on the top of the poop. Who the hell would want to steer a warship from such an open position in battle? The wheel would be shot away in a heartbeat. Big target=suicide. The wheel of a ship of this type is positioned under the poop at the base of the mizzenmast and out of the way so it's more difficult to take it out. Obviously a ship without steering cannot be controlled and would be subject to capture rather quickly. Once the masts are shot down and the rudder is out, the ship would be unmanageable and pretty much worthless at that point. :She was not on the way to sea, but anchored the harbour, her crew was presumbably on land, helping the citiciens of Port Royal. During the Battle at Isla de Muerta, a great part of the crew (200-300 men) was in the rowboats, while others were on the gun decks. In the scene when Pintel and Ragetti are firing cannons, you can see other pirates helping them, e.g. they battle was not only on the upper deck but also inside the hull, we saw only the fight on deck (with lot's of participants). The steering wheel was located on the upper deck becase the cannons were located on the lower decks, so it couldn't be destroyed by a cannonball, and in naval battles in the age of sail, it was extremely common thet a ship lost all masts, look at historical images. El Chupacabra 12:59, 5 November 2007 (UTC) The Dauntless's wheel looks like it was on top of the poop deck. This ship is based on the HMS victory, which has the wheel on the main deck, recessed under the poop deck for protection. However, Victory's wheel was still shot away about 15 minutes after breaking the Franco-Spanish line in 1805. :In answer to the question, Jack and Will did take the ship. We know, because 1. they were sucessful. The "Dauntless" appeared to have only a skelleton crew aboard, so it couldn't be that hard. Captain J. Sparrow P.S. Shouldn't this be on the "Faithful Bride"? It a speculation - C. J. S.